social media

Flowers and Clarification

July 17, 2023 at 9:01 am by Claudia

The Rose of Sharon is blooming. I have two of them, both of which were given to me by my friend Noble, tiny cuttings taken from his gorgeous bushes. One of the cuttings is a bit behind this one. It’s looking full and lovely but I suspect it won’t bloom until next year. I love these old-fashioned members of the hibiscus family.

Another air quality warning today. It’s endless. Either it’s raining and thundering or it’s not raining but incredibly humid or it’s not raining but it’s not very safe for someone like me to go outside. For much of the summer, I have felt trapped indoors. Very, very frustrating. I know some of you are suffering from drought or temps in the triple digits.

In regards to yesterday’s post, remember that social media in itself isn’t a bad thing. In fact, I’ve gained a lot from social media. I’ve come to know so many wonderful people, including all of you. I’ve made contacts I wouldn’t have been able to make in my wildest dreams if not for social media. It’s brought my work to the attention of magazine publishers and I’ve been published at least 4 or 5 times. It’s given me a professional web site for my theatrical coaching, which has brought me work. For those of us who work in the arts, it is an absolute necessity nowadays. I used to have a book review blog and I repeatedly heard from authors who said that publishers and potential publishers wanted authors to have an online presence in social media. Authors publicize their books through social media. In fact, Louise Penny thanked me when I met her – she said that bloggers sharing her work were a big part of her success. Musicians post about their work through social media. They post videos, share their process, and publicize their upcoming gigs – they can no longer rely on a manager or a big recording company to do that. Visual artists do the same. And as someone who works in theater and film, I have to stay connected through social media. I have taught hundreds of students, I’ve worked with hundreds of actors, many, many directors and designers, and at scads of theaters. Keeping in touch with them is essential. And I don’t just do it because I have to. I also treasure those relationships and want to. I’ve been hired because I’m on social media. Actors contact me for coaching through social media. I used social media to publicize my book reviews back when I was reviewing books on an almost-daily basis. After a 40+ year career in the theater, I’ve found social media to be invaluable. I remember the day I joined Facebook. Suddenly, scads and scads of my former students started popping up and I cried. To have a way of staying in contact with them, of knowing how they were doing? Priceless. Both Don and I have extensive contacts after our decades in the performing arts. Plus, I’m in touch with childhood friends and fellow summer camp counselors, friends from college and grad school, cousins and nieces and nephews, former next-door neighbors from my childhood, the list goes on and on and on.

So. It’s not social media that’s the problem. It’s simply a matter of controlling how much time I spend there. And that’s up to me and only me. I’m in charge of my time usage.

But, make no mistake, I am very, very grateful for it. It’s opened up my world in ways that I could never imagine a couple of decades ago.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Sunday Thoughts

July 16, 2023 at 9:26 am by Claudia

We had a huge thunderstorm early this morning, while we were still sleeping. Rolling thunder, rain slamming against the windows, maybe a little hail? I can’t be sure because I was still in a sleep state. The sump pump has been going on and off for a few hours now.

There’s something neat about a middle-of-the-night thunderstorm.

Don had a gig last night so I decided to watch Allen vs. Farrow – an excellent documentary about the Woody Allen/Mia Farrow custody fight in the nineties. It’s a four-part series and I ended up watching all of it. For the record, the moment the news broke that Allen was sleeping with Mia’s daughter, Soon-Yi, I stopped watching his films. And I loved his work. That was long ago and I haven’t watched a new film of his since. This documentary is primarily concerned with accusations of sexual abuse with his adopted daughter, Dylan, but the situation with Soon-Yi is also covered.

He’s a despicable human being.

And Dylan is an incredibly brave woman who eventually spoke out about what happened to her.

I can’t stop thinking about it today.

It’s on HBO/HBO Max, if you’re interested.

More rain today, more thunderstorms. I was telling Don that I don’t think we’ve ever had so many thunderstorms during the summer. Rain, yes, but constant thunderstorms? No. Yet another extreme in this summer of extremes.

I have some chores to do today that I don’t like doing, but I’m forcing myself to do them. I guess that’s called ‘being an adult.’

And I continue to think about social media and my presence there. I’m definitely spending less time visiting Instagram and Twitter and Threads. I check in, but try not to stay there too long. I love Instagram, don’t get me wrong, but it’s entirely possible to spend hours scrolling through the feeds and I’m so aware of TIME at the age of 70. Do I want to spend that much time looking at something virtual? I don’t think so. We’re actually turning our phones off for portions of the day. I have a blog, a FB account (mainly for birthdays of my friends and former students,) 3 IG accounts – my main account, my Blythe account (because not everyone that follows my main account is interested in dolls and some of them would think I’d lost my marbles) and my book account, which was started when I had the book review blog. I scroll Twitter and Threads mainly as an up-to-the-minute news source. And I have this blog. That’s a lot.

Lately, the sheer amount of news and pictures and self-promotions and selfies and ‘influencers’ and dolls and everything else has begun to wear on me. So I’m taking more time to talk to my husband, to read, to walk in the garden, to meditate, etc. Quality of life going forward is important, so important.

So that’s where I am at the moment.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Thoughts On My Phone

July 15, 2021 at 9:46 am by Claudia

The David phlox I planted many years ago is in bloom. Just like coneflowers, it self-seeds, so I get to see it spring up here and there in the big garden bed. It’s a tall version of phlox so it has a lot of impact.

Speaking of impact, the crazy weather has had an effect on some of my hanging plants, and has yellowed some leaves on the limelight hydrangea. Here and there on the property, I can see some changes due to the extreme heat we had as well as all the rain. There’s nothing I can do, of course, but observe it.

Yesterday, much to my surprise, the sun came out in the afternoon. I couldn’t believe my eyes! And it’s out again today. We’ll make sure we appreciate it while it’s here because the dreaded ‘chance of thunderstorms’ is back on the docket for the next five days.

I’m over it.

I didn’t get any painting done yesterday. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood. And it was very hot and humid early on, so the a/c had to be turned on and I tend not to paint when it’s blowing air throughout the kitchen.

Don and I were talking about cell phones this morning and I’ve decided that I’m going to start turning mine off for a chunk of time every day. They’re too addictive. I’ve done it in the past, but I always fell back into old patterns. Really – how important do I think I am? Aside from phone calls and face time with my sister and nephew, the rest of it is designed to be addictive; instagram, twitter, games, photos, apps, social media. I managed to get by without any of it for over half my life. I don’t think I got a cell phone until my late forties and in that case, I bought it to be able to communicate with Don on our cross-country move. (We were driving separate vehicles.) When I was teaching I used to say the last thing I wanted was for my students to be able to contact me during my down time. Now, if you’re teaching anywhere, but especially at a university, students can text you and email you all of the time. I can’t imagine anything worse.

The cell phone has ruined much of the experience that is live theater. I’ve written about that before on this blog. It’s appalling. Not only is the experience ruined for the audience, but let me assure you, actors can see the light from the phones when they’re onstage. I remember when our biggest worries were someone coughing a lot or opening up a candy wrapper. Now, it’s the constant buzzing and ringing of cell phones because apparently no one can turn their phone off for two hours.

It used to be that the rehearsal room was an almost sacred space – a space for the actors and the director. No one came into the room who wasn’t part of the creative team. It was a space in which to create, to feel free to take risks without anyone else there. Now, every show has a social media team and those people are constantly invading the space, asking actors for a photo, for a quote, and then, once the show is open, there is the whole ‘takeover’ thing. The Instagram Takeover by so and so – whatever actor has been drafted into doing it for that night. It happens on every show nowadays. It happened on Margaritaville. I finally had to stop following some cast members because they were being sucked into generating social media content that looked exactly like it was – a hyped-up performance backstage. Another actor in the dressing room! Look at this actor backstage! Some of the dancers are warming up! I’m going to ask all the actors a question and share it with you! Aren’t we fun and silly!!

Oh, my heavens. I know I’ve officially become an old fart with this post, but why does everything in the theater have to be hyped on social media? Why can’t the actors and crew and production staff just do their work? It isn’t right. Furthermore, it strips the magic right out of the experience.

If you were in the room with me, you’d have heard a big sigh just now. Some days I long to go back to a simpler time. I certainly long to go back to the kind of theater experience I had for most of my career. It seems almost quaint now.

I have so much more to say but that’s enough for now.

Anyway. My phone will be turned off for a few hours today. I’m going to make myself stick to that.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives